3 - Excellent experimentation !

The story revolves around 2 people and only two people. A wonderfully crafted Psychological Drama/Thriller which might have some impact on everyone who watches it. I still couldn't understand why they named the movie 3, was it for portraying 3 stages of the lead actors life or for something else?

Film starts with people mourning at the death of Ram (Dhanush). Seen here are , Ram's wife Janani ( Shruthi Hassan), Dhanush's folks ( Prabhu and Bhanupriya) and Shruthi's folks (Rohini and someone). The story goes back and forth into past and present pointing out how Dhanush and Shruthi love each other and how they make decisions about themselves. The first half of the movie concentrates on only the courtship of the 2 protagonists of the movie. It seemed very stereotypical but very elegant on how two people can fall in love and how things can be easy if the right chords are struck at the right time. Midst this come couple of scenes where the police officer conveys a Autopsy report ( which is silenced by the BGM ) but is very shocking and painful to Shruthi. Then she also discovers a letter written to Shruthi from Dhanush before he died which is not clear but is apologetic. The next half of the movie deals with who or what killed Dhanush and what troubled Dhanush's marriage and how the intimacy shared between the couple is wrecked. Since the story has some suspenseful plot I am not going further into the story.

Before you get bored by the review, I would like to mention the feel of the movie would have been completely different ( Extremely Boring ) had the Background Score been any less powerful. I'd say, the score carried the entire movie though the screenplay was powerful. The score had a very heavy inspiration of Roman folk music and some Country Waltz. There were scenes where the music was a bit over powering the dialogues ( poor sound engineering ).

The acting department was flawless but for Shruthi Hassan. She has done her part but she still needs to experiment on many of her expressions, especially CRYING. She looks too ugly and unnatural when she cries. 

People should start comparing her with Kamal Hassan, Shivaji's son did not become like Sivaji, Amitabh's son couldn't become like Amitabh. Sathyaraj's son - don't even think about it. So lets not expect something from Shruthi in the scale of Kamal Hassan. 

It was a good feeling to see veteran actors like Bhanupriya , Rohini and Prabhu in one screen though they have very less influence. Dhanush doesn't need any critic for his acting, its sad to see that he's raising his "Bench-Mark" in each movie the expectations are wild. Sivakarthikeyan has single won Hands-down with his slapstick comedy along with Dhanush. He has indeed propelled the first half through his snippets  from falling under the usual Hero-Heroine love category. 

Screenplay was good but flawed and lost continuity at many instances, 

• For how many months will Shruthi wear the "Thaali" in yellow thread?
• For how many months will Dhanush's friend Senthil be in a cast and have a plaster in his forehead. 
• In one scene, he's seen without one but then has one in the next.  
• Dhanush places a letter in his right pocket but Shruthi takes it out from the left one.
• Dhanush says Shruthi is sad after marriage, and invites her parents home. But they celebrate their "First Night" after how many days???
• Shruthi says she's known Dhanush for 10 years, but they've been married for how long?

Even though hard to notice, quite a number of flaws and discontinuity in the screenplay. I hope Aishwarya will correct herself in her next movie. Switching between present, past and talking about the possibilities captivated the audience and a good way of story telling. 

Overall its a feel good movie with a subtle message. Please don't go to the movie with "Why this KolaVeri" expectation, its a very different Genre that was not previously handled Indian/Tamil Cinema which not many can easily pull with only 2 Characters.

My rating for this would be a 6.5!

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Simply Complex !

If your thinking Girl + Dragon + Tattoo = Fantasy, then please erase that thought completely from your mind. This is a start to finish suspenseful crime thriller. This  is an adaptation of a Swedish Novel named  Män som hatar kvinnor – meaning "Men who hate Women".

The film's protagonist(s) are Mikael Blomkvist(Michael Nyqvist) Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace). It all starts with Mike in a courtroom where he loses a case against a rich billionaire. Mike's is under the constant vigil of Lisbeth who works for a detective agency and gives an investigation report to the assistant of a rich business man who leads a very big conglomerate "Vanger" group of companies. 

Mike is being requested by Erik Vanger to visit him and when he does he explains how his niece went missing during their family reunion and that there were mysterious events taking place on that day in the Island he lived. Mr Vanger requests Mike to further investigate her disappearance even though it has been more than 30 years.

Meanwhile Lisbeth is a very strange woman who has a very rough childhood and is being abused by her caretaker. By some coincidence Mike meets her and they start to investigate together. What they find at the end of the story is very suspenseful and you would have to watch it.

The story and the actors need no comments from me since the number of awards they've been nominated and won would speak for it. The screenplay is what is very good about the movie and I heard from a friend that the movie was so exactly portrayed like what it was in the book. Its really difficult to get something from a book on the screen. The music in the Swedish version was a bit let down, but the English version had a BG score and music which gelled with the story and induced the interest every scene. 

The film was again remade in English starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara which was also nominated in 6 categories in the 84th Academy Awards and won the Award for the best Editing.

If you are craving for some suspenseful movies like Seven or Psycho here it is !!!

My Watch-o-Meter Rating is 8

Vettai - A Decent Hunt !

Lingusamy who is well known for his only 2 hits Aanandham and Run, has finally delivered another fast-paced Entertainer, but with lots of influence from Bhagyaraj's Avasara Police 100.

The story is very explicit from the trailer. Madhavan is the elder brother who happens to be timid and defensive, Arya's the younger brother who's the right opposite and loves his brother a lot. On compassionate grounds, Madhavan's offered a Sub Inspector position only to find out later that the city is an atrocious play - ground of 2 rowdy smuggling gangs.

The Villains find out the impersonation of Arya, attack Maddy and after this the story shifts gears and moves more faster and as usual ends with Maddy and Arya getting rid of the Rowdy Villains. The History, Geography, Chemistry and Physics of the brothers is what follows and ends the story. 

Lets talk about the overall picture.....

Lingusamy should be credited for introducing Tamil Cinema with Multiple Villain Syndrome ( MVS )starting from SandaKozhi. Terrible example of this disease is Paiyya!!!  Though there were 2 villains they have the same Line of Business which justifies the fight against smugglers and keeps MVS mild. 

The story could've seen lesser songs, especially in the first 45 minutes or so which has about 3 songs, yes but there are no songs after that for the next 1 hour to contain the momentum (Good job Director ). Maddy's comic sense was under utilized but was compensated by Arya's. Maddy's acting doesn't need any criticism and Arya's casual composure adds value to the screenplay. The heroines have been used as dolls, Sameera Reddy seems stupid in her role, Amala Paul's role could get some credit may be for not being portrayed as dumb. 

Lingusamy definitely needs to be applauded for openly accepting through a scene where Maddy says "Naama yen orey Maadhiri porandhu irukka koodaadhu? " that the movie was heavily inspired by Bagyaraj's Avasara Police 100 where there are 2 Baghyaraj's ,the elder son is very scared/soft and the younger one is active and does things for his brother. All other departments are "OK" level. 

The editing and cinematography alone stand out and the former provided some good transition for the fast paced screen play. Not too many shakes in the camera for the fight scenes!!!

So what doesn't sound right?

1. Everyone  in the story speak with a Therkatthi (Southern) dialect except the 4 lead actors.

2. No importance to the supporting characters other than the lead 4.

3. Nasser wasted !!!! Doesn't get the importance which even Thambi Ramaiah gets.

4. Useless USA maapillai character and scenes ( I plead to the Directors to use Bride-grooms from Australia or Dubai, எவ்வளோ நாள் தான் USA மாபிள்ளைகள் அடி வாங்கறது??? )

5. Too lengthy second half makes us to ask Maddy to kill the villain immediately

The above factors have affected what could've been a very good entertainer to a decent entertainer . Overall we can watch this a couple of times may be for the fight scenes and Arya/Madhavan's comedy.

My Watch-o-Meter Rating is 6

Mouna Guru - A Silent Kill !

Director Santhakumar has done "Justice" to the title of this movie, The Master of Silence.

Arulnidhi ( Karunakaran ) a short tempered youngster who gets into trouble most of the time and doesn't like how the society treats him. He has a conventionally worrying mother who curses him of his incapacity to sustain himself in one school/college for long. As a result of his bad temper, Arul is rusticated from his college and hence he and his mother go to Chennai where his brother gets him an admit into one of the Arts colleges he has connections with. Arul's brother's sister in law (Iniya ) stays in the same house and they like each other. Arul's Sister in Law doesn't like him for his behavior and wants him moved to a hostel. After some hardship he gets a room in the college hostel. 

The Hostel is another story by itself, lot of stuff gets stolen most of the time and people keep complaining the warden on things getting stolen. There are a couple of people who don't like Arul and give him a hard time, Arul due to certain circumstances gets popular in school and this kindles more hatred for the earlier mentioned folks. 

Then there's another story where a small group of cops led by an Assistant Commissioner (John Vijay - the assistant of Prithiviraj in Ravanan ) witness an accident on a highway and find that there's a big stash of cash in the car which they take it without anyone seeing it. This information gets leaked out of group by the commissioner's girl friend. 

What happens after this is a series of twists and turns and how this affects Karuna, the college, the police department, the government ( yes the government ) and how all stories get connected. 

Given that the genre of this movie is a Crime Thriller I cannot break any more ice here !!!

SCREENPLAY if made into a Hollywood movie will get extremely Rave Reviews. I am guessing it will soon be remade into a Bollywood movie. A very well crafted "Parallel Cinema" in a thriller Genre after a long time ( after Virumandi, Yuva and the recent Yudham Sei ). I can't believe the director was a Debutant. 

The screen play is so well knit that the director has only 3 songs in the movie one of which comes with the title of the movie and describes the lead character. There were certain places where the screenplay needed some more explanation like the relationship between Iniya and Arul which was a bit haphazard due to its importance to the remaining script, the climax of the movie which seemed quite lengthy had some additional twists which eclipses that lag. Each and every character, warden, principal, watchmen, even the one in the mental asylum had an importance which is what a very good writer would want. 

Music is the heart of any thriller and the heart had a very good rhythm in this screenplay unlike Thaman's earlier RR for Eeram wasn't very appealing. But with this release he can be proud about doing suspense and thriller genres in the future. 

The DOP needs to be appreciated for his work since the camera portrayed scenes through unconventional angles and was interesting, I guess they used natural lighting in most of the parts and the locations well suited the story.  

Arulnidhi has again proved he's a "Directors Actor", he has transformed himself as the character and has gelled into the story. He has very less to talk and listens to almost all of the insults which others make against him in a very silent manner. He has evolved into another versatile actor in Tamil Cinema who has proved that you don't have to scream or hit 10 people to show that you're versatile. 

Iniya is seen as a very timid girl and very charming. Not her best performance I'd say when you compare Vaagai Sooda Va, but doesn't make us feel the way we see actresses in Vijay's movies who come only to woo the hero's with their beauty and body language. 

John Vijay has now established himself in a way that he can play any character with ease. There were a few scenes where his body language kind of reminds me of Pasupathy's mannerisms (thats just me). 

A bonus surprise character here is that off Uma Riyaaz who also comes in as a pregnant cop with a cool head!! Last time we saw he on screen was with Kamal Hassan's "Anbe Sivam"

Overall the movie stands out in every department and I wish the director doesn't stop here and would like to see more crime/suspense thriller from him. There's some heavy competition for  Bharathiraja's place after he's gone !!!!!

My rating for this movie is 7